The terminal at Fuerteventura Airport is completely empty on this January morning. When I order a "Café con Leche" shortly after 7, in the only open café at the time before the security check, the friendly waitress yawns in my face with a "Perdón".

A few minutes later, when I reach the only completely empty check-in desk for Canaryfly flight "PM804", there are surprisingly long queues at the neighboring desks of the only competitor in domestic traffic, "Binter Canarias".

A first indication of the utilization that should await me right away? Canaryfly, which started in 2010 as the successor to the insolvent "Islas Airways", only serves routes between the Canary Islands with a fleet of only five ATR72-212A, unlike the almost overwhelming Binter Canarias.

The islands of El Hierro, La Palma, Lanzarote, Tenerife (North), Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura are connected to each other, but you will look in vain for flights to neighboring North Africa. The airline has established itself in what is now its 13th year of operation and is conducting its flight operations in a stable and reliable manner.

Cabin:

The cabin of the almost 14-year-old ATR72 EC-NYS, which was previously in service in the Czech Republic with CSA, the Italian Mistral Air and Azul in Brazil, looked clean and in really good condition. The dark blue leather-covered seats were impeccable, otherwise the cabin can be described as typical for a turboprop of this age - as "unspectacular". If you expect more than a folding table and a seat bag in front of you, you will unfortunately be disappointed.

WiFi/Entertainment:

If you look in vain on board the ATR72, as expected, you should concentrate on the view out of the window in the classic way or organize the few minutes of flight in some other way. The low altitude flight over almost the entire island of Fuerteventura was really worth seeing though.

Services on board:

Immediately after take-off, both flight attendants began the sales service which, due to the low occupancy rate on board, was also completed within less than 2 minutes. The prices are €1 - a maximum of €2,50 for a beer and a bag of chips, absolutely nothing can be said “ was managed out.

Since I had to leave my hotel room at 6:15 am and thus before breakfast time, I decided to buy at least a little something on board and then have a decent breakfast on Gran Canaria. €2,80 was charged for my “purchase”, a really more than fair price.

Tariff system:

Like Binter Canarias, Canaryfly offers prices that are only available to residents of the Canary Islands, some of which start at €5 one way. Favorable prices for tourists start at around €30 O/W on the Fuerteventura – Gran Canaria route if booked in good time and always include 8 kg hand luggage (which was actually weighed at check-in) and checked luggage of a maximum of 23 kg . Since my hand luggage weighed 10,4 kilos and exceeded the 8 kilo limit, I decided to check in free of charge. It should be noted that Canaryfly only accepts payments via Visa and Mastercard both via the homepage and via the qualitatively rather modest app, whereby in my case only the third Visa card was successful, my two Mastercards failed for no apparent reason.

And finally ...

Canaryfly offers hassle-free, unspectacular and easy transportation within the Canary Islands. The plane was in a surprisingly good optical condition, the crew was motivated, the early flight that morning (unlike the competition from Binter) with only 20 passengers on board was only very manageably booked.

As a rule, Canaryfly was always a few euros cheaper than Binter in the weeks before the test booking, all of that with often very similar departure times. Only the frequencies are significantly lower overall than the competition from Binter. It flies up to 11 times a day on the Fuerteventura – Gran Canaria route, Canaryfly has 3 flights a day, 2 in the morning and one in the evening. If you are a little more flexible in your flight times and want to save a few euros, you can book a flight within the archipelago here with a clear conscience.